Skype for Windows Phone in first half of 2012

Yesterday we reported that Skype for Windows Phone is coming soon, now we have found out that Skype for Windows Phone as an app for download will be available in the first of half of 2012 and it will be integrated into Apollo and beyond. Paul Thurrott of Supersite for Windows confirmed that the documentation that he used for news such as Microsoft and Nokia’s Marketing of Windows Phones in 2012 and LTE support in Windows Phone.

He says “I can now confirm that the software giant’s internal documentation has tagged the first half of 2012 for the release. This is the same documentation I used for the basis for two previous exclusive reports, Microsoft and Nokia’s Plans for Marketing Windows Phone in 2012 and Microsoft’s LTE Plans for Windows Phone.”

And as per Robert Scoble on his Google+ page says that Skype’s CEO Tony Bates says that Skype App for Windows Phone Mango is coming soon and Skype will be integrated into the platform from Apollo and beyond.

He says on his google+ page “Tony Bates, CEO of Skype, says that they are indeed doing an app that’s coming on Mango.” and “a Skype app is coming on Mango on Windows Phone and further integration will be built into the Apollo version of Windows Phone.”

This is indeed a good news for Skype and Windows Phone users. Microsoft please expedite it.

10 COMMENTS

Even better Microsoft is pouring tens of millions of dollars into promoting alternate brand apps that replace the function of other branded apps that are not coming to the platform anytime soon if at all. Pandora was cited as an example of a branded app that we can’t expect anytime soon unless via 3rd party devs.

Microsoft is also targeting the top 25 apps on iOS and Android and pushing to get them released to the Windows Phone platform by the end of the first half of 2012.

If, and thats still murky, Microsoft accomplishes these goals it means an outstanding 2012 is in store for Windows Phone users.

I would say in America at least, alternate brand apps are fine for some, but your average Joe or Jane is *incredibly* brand-aware and still brand-loyal. It will take more work to get alternate brand apps to be acceptable alternatives to the average person. All my friends and relatives ask is, “Do you have ____?” If I say, “No, but I have ____, which is the same and [it was free/it does more]!” they just write it off.

So what exactly is going to be implemented sometime this summer, Skype instant messaging and video chatting on wifi, right? Or actual Skype VoIP/POTS calling too? Has anyone even brought that up? It’s kind of a big deal if you care about this for the pragmatic benefit of getting Skype.

Just curious what all the fuss has been about with this (and for a while Netflix), the tremendous unrelenting anticipation and frustration, now premature celebration.

I believe that, to you, this whole Skype thing is entirely centered around a collective insecurity that Microsoft made a deal with Skype and WP is Microsoft and Skype is on the popular mobile platforms therefore the world isn’t right until WP has an integrated Skype client. In other words not having Skype is such a black eye to the platform’s fans that it’s actually keeping Windows Phone from locking in perceived legitimacy.

Sounds crazy, I know — but correct me if I’m wrong.

You know what’s funny to me? It’s funny how fickle, with ultra-rapid cyclicity, you people are in whether you love or hate Paul Thurrott, whether he’s the devil or whether you should trust and reblog his inside information with tender affection. And I bet that’s funny to Paul Thurrott too, who by the way is a good writer.

Doug, peoples affection towards Thurott is the same as their willingness to believe crystall-ball shysters at analysis firms. If its news they like, they throw it up all over the internet. If they don’t, they post angry comments.

I simply haven’t seen an analyst firm thats been correct enough to put any stock into their vague statements, and I try to ignore them all (Like the most recent one with Morgan Stanley estimating 1 mil Lumia’s shipped in Q4 2011… it’s an estimate, and probably put up there so they didn’t have to waste time with decimals or 100k numbers), but conversely I think Thurott has proven his track record for correct insider information time and time again.

I think people want apps and games that their friends have. In an increasingly socially connected world that takes on more importance. Yes branded apps are important but being in the action is more important.

Anthony, regarding using Facebook data as an indicator, … I wrote about my faith in it over a year ago, I’ve been using it since then with no disappointments (just dealing with people like you who seem curious about commercial performance but aren’t interested in the truth if it’s unflattering and not “official” sounding) and also I’ve used it, again for over a year, without finding any superior source of such information. I didn’t just pull this out of my ass.

Rather than my rewriting it here in a comment, would you at least read my four month follow-up on the thing?

The man who made it, by the way, to my knowledge did it as an academic pursuit, a hobby, and with respect to this data is in no one’s pocket and definitely has nothing to gain by somehow fudging the numbers which, if you look at his formulas, you’ll see that he has no way of doing that anyway.

The last update showed Windows Phone getting a disproportionately large post-Christmas sales bump along the lines of what happened after Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving though the bump flattened out right away. Maybe this time it has traction? We’ll find out soon, those of us who don’t reject the data because it wasn’t in some Microsoft SEC filing. I actually read those. Find me one that discloses… ahh nevermind.